The kitchen restoration has been the most extensive. The flooring and joists were removed due to termite damage. The foundation beams were replaced as well. The picture above was our first look at the kitchen. The window to the left you see in this picture actually looked into the mudroom so Charlie closed it in and gave me recessed shelving in that space to display pictures and knick knacks. We relocated the sink to the space just below the new recessed shelving so that we could install a second window on the south side of the kitchen. Adding the window gave us a beautiful view into the back yard. The picture above and to the right is of Charlie and our oldest, Chris, after gutting the kitchen down to the dirt!

​The picture above is a good look at the state of the kitchen for the longest time! I cooked Thanksgiving dinner with just the stove, the workbench, and a utility sink that Charlie is thinking about installing in this picture.

​The insulation was probably one of the easiest elements of the kitchen restoration.

​Charlie installed the insulation board in the ceiling to help with the transfer of hot and cold through the metal roof on the kitchen.

The cabinet installation was a truly welcome event! ​

Charlie began the last large element of the kitchen restoration---the installation of the bead board this summer (2016). He will paint the bead board white and then install a piece of decorative molding just below the one beam that you can see that runs along the top perimeter of the kitchen. ​

This is a look at the installation of the subflooring.

​The wallboard installation went fairly easily since Charlie has a ton of experience with it.

​The wall boarding of the ceiling was not so easy and NO ONE looked forward to getting it done. We wanted to keep the beams exposed in the kitchen but the Department of Historic Resources refused it since there is no evidence that the beams were ever exposed in the history of the house.

​The soapstone was the only luxury we splurged on in the kitchen. We love the durability of them and love that they came from a quarry in Virginia!